


A Moment of Kindness

by readergirl1013



Category: Naruto
Genre: Childhood, Friendship, Gen, Gender Identity, Genderqueer Character, Kindness, LGBTQ Themes, Pre-Canon, Queer Character, Queer Themes, Self-Acceptance, Self-Discovery, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem, Talking, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 12:00:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13546890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readergirl1013/pseuds/readergirl1013
Summary: Kakashi almost walked right on by when he heard someone crying nearby. Almost. Instead he peeked into the clearing to see a little blonde boy dressed in orange sobbing. He could have walked away. Should have, if he'd followed orders. Maybe any other time he would have. But... that day he couldn't.After that, who knows? They say a single moment of kindness can change a life, after all.





	A Moment of Kindness

Kakashi heard someone crying, but trying to muffle the noise. His instinctive reaction was to flee, and perhaps in another world he might have, but here something about the sound was… too heartbreaking to ignore. After looking up at the clouds for answers and finding none, he tucked his book away and decided to peek and see who it was.

It wasn’t difficult to find the source: a little blond boy dressed in orange. Oh.

He shifted awkwardly. He wasn’t supposed to approach him. He wouldn’t know what to say even if he did.

The boy’s little shoulders heaved in great, hitching breaths as a new wave of tears fell from his eyes, and all Kakashi could see in his mind’s eye was the day the boy’s mother had found _him_ sobbing at the memorial. Kakashi couldn’t leave him like this.

He tried to remember everything Kushina-neesan had done. After a moment he moved forward, determined. Slowly, but making sure his steps could be heard, he entered the clearing. He sat down cross-legged, not too far away but not too close, either. He didn’t want to scare him off.

It took Naruto a while to notice him. But, eventually, he looked up at him and cowered away, looking ready to flee. Kakashi’s heart broke a little, almost unnoticeable with how shattered it already was.

He reached into his pocket to pull out the cloth he used to polish his weapons with. It wasn’t the embroidered handkerchief Kushina-neesan had handed him, but after checking to make it wasn’t too dirty he handed it to the boy, making sure it was in his line of sight.

Naruto looked at it in confusion for a long moment before hesitantly taking it. He twisted it through his fingers for a bit before wiping his eyes, and loudly blowing his nose. Then he handed the cloth back to him. Kakashi took it with a slight grimace. Sure, he was a shinobi and had been covered in things far more disgusting than a ten year olds snot, but still. Ew.

“Thanks,” the boy mumbled. Sniffling again.

Kakashi shrugged and racked his brain for a moment. What would Kushina-neesan have said? Ah. “Wanna… talk?” he asked him, grimacing.

Talking. Feelings. Emotions. No thank you.

But…

“I can… listen.”

Naruto blinked his big blue eyes up at him, tears still falling, but looking at Kakashi as though he’d offered him the world. He swallowed roughly and again suppressed the urge to flee.

The boy sniffled again and asked, “Can I have the cloth back?”

Kakashi handed him the snotty rag. “Keep it.”

He nodded and blew his nose again. Kakashi grimaced again. Yeah, he wasn’t asking for it back. Ever.

“It’s not fair,” Naruto said, barely louder than a whisper. It was the quietest he’d ever heard the kid. Even alone at home, seen through the window when Kakashi was on his Anbu guard or sneaking in to make sure the kid’s cupboards contained more than ramen, the boy was loud.

“Lots of things aren’t,” Kakashi offered when he didn’t continue. He didn’t say, ‘Especially for you.’

“The other boys are all makin’ fun,” he said, “just ‘cause I don’t like some stupid girl.”

Kakashi briefly considered how Minato-sensei would have handled that sentence (lots of arm-waving and panicking and probably a lecture on being too young and safe sex) and how Kushina-neesan would have (squealing and demands to know who her baby did like and assurances that he’d find the woman fate meant for him) and decided neither of those reactions would work well for him. Instead he said, “Okay?”

“They said,” his breath hitched, and he whispered, “they said I’m a, a _hentai_ _freak_ ‘cause I said I like a boy.”

Kakashi’s heart hammered and his throat felt tight. Oh.

Naruto looked up at him, eyes overflowing again. “Shinobi-san, am I a freak?”

Kakashi shook his head. “No.” He looked up at the tree branches above them and the blue sky and fluffy clouds above that. “No, you’re not a freak.”

He tried to think of something else to say. He was so unqualified for this. Sage, where was Genma when you needed him?

“Really?” Naruto asked doubtfully.

“Really,” Kakashi replied after a long pause. He took a deep breath. “There’s nothing wrong with liking another boy. Don’t listen to anyone who says different. Okay?”

“Okay,” Naruto murmured. “But… are you sure? The other boys said only sissy civilian hentai freaks liked boys.”

“I’m sure,” Kakashi said firmly. Who had said that? He wanted to rip someone’s head off for putting that into those boys’ heads, because they’d heard it somewhere else first. Ten year olds didn’t go spouting off shit like that on their own. He hesitated then added, “One of my best friends is a boy who likes boys. And he’s a jōnin.”

“A jōnin?”

“A jōnin,” Kakashi confirmed. “Like me. So listen to your superior here, huh?” He cleared his throat and added, “Liking boys or girls… that doesn’t matter to real shinobi. Don’t listen to anyone who says it does.”

He wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to say. But how was he supposed to know? Hopefully it was okay and this emotional torture would end soon.

“It doesn’t?” Naruto frowned, his brow furrowing. “Does… does maybe not being a boy sometimes matter?”

Kakashi blinked. He had no idea what that meant. When the kid seemed to still be expecting an answer, he offered, “Girls can be great shinobi too.”

Naruto nodded, and slowly said, “Yeah, but, uh,” he scratched at the back of his head, “what if I’m a girl? Sometimes? Not always. But, heh, sometimes?”

Kakashi’s brain screeched to a halt. He blinked slowly and carefully did not let his jaw drop or his mouth start stuttering. Oh Sage he had to say something, the kid was starting to frown again. What did he say? Maybe he could just flee, like he’d wanted to originally.

A part of him, deep inside, cringed at the thought of what Kushina-neesan’s reaction would have been if he fled from Naruto. Especially when the kid so obviously needed someone to talk with. When he had a gut feeling that saying the wrong thing now would be… crippling.

“That doesn’t matter to real shinobi either,” he settled on saying. “Boy or girl, it doesn’t matter so long as you do your best as a shinobi.”

Naruto stared at him. His features lightened slowly as relief and happiness warred across his face. Oh to be so young that you let your true emotions show without hesitation. “Thanks, shinobi-san.”

“Maa, call me Kakashi,” he wished he could add the ‘niisan’ to the end that Kushina-neesan and Minato-sensei had wanted him to be. Damn orders. Someday, he swore to himself. Someday.

Naruto twisted some grass between his fingers. “I’m not very good at the Academy, Kakashi-san. I don’t think I’ll be a good shinobi,” he whispered, “I’m Dead Last. And a freak too.”

Kakashi closed his eye briefly. “You’re not a freak, Naruto,” he repeated, using the boy’s name for the first time. After a moment he said roughly, “The best friend I ever had was Dead Last at the Academy. He taught me more about being a good shinobi than anyone else.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said. He cleared his throat, considering for a moment how to phrase what he wanted to say. “He taught me the important thing isn’t following all the rules perfectly, or being able to do high-level jutsu. It’s being a good friend. It’s never letting your friends, who are counting on you, down. The kids who called you names, those aren’t good friends. They let you down. Who didn’t let you down when you said you liked a boy? I’m sure there was someone.”

Please let there have been someone.

“Chōji,” Naruto said after a moment’s thought. “He didn’t say anything mean. He told the other boys to shut up when I got upset. Shikamaru said they were all being troublesome and to go away.”

“There you go. Those are the friends you need to listen to, not the others,” Kakashi said. He was pleased with the names. Unless he was wildly off his mark those were the Akimichi and Nara heirs’ names. The sons of two of Minato-sensei’s best friends. “Those two – Chōji and Shikamaru – those are good friends. That’s who you need to not let down. Like they didn’t let you down.”

He patted himself on the back. He wasn’t too bad at this. Even if he still hated every second of this emotional mess and wanted to flee.

Naruto scratched his head and wrinkled his nose. “But if I’m no good at the Academy I’ll let them down. ‘Cause then I can’t protect them.”

Kakashi considered that. It was true. After a moment, he asked, “What aren’t you good at?”

“Everything, but especially all the book stuff,” Naruto admitted with a sigh. “I’m not a good reader. Especially with kanji. And it’s so _boring_.”

Kakashi figured that was because the poor kid had no one to help him with it. He tilted his head to the side. “Have you told your senseis you’re having a hard time with the reading?”

“No,” the kid muttered. “They wouldn’t help anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Kakashi asked, unsure why the boy was convinced his own teachers wouldn’t help him. Surely educated shinobi wouldn’t take out their resentment for the kyūbi onto the kid? The civilians didn’t know better, no thanks to the Hokage, but the shinobi should.

“Maybe Iruka-sensei,” Naruto muttered after a long moment. “He’s sort of new and seems pretty nice.”

“Well, ask him then. And about the other things you’re not good at,” Kakashi suggested, making a note to go interrogate the man tomorrow and make a few ‘subtle’ threats. “When you’re better at reading I’m sure your grades will improve.”

“Yeah!” Naruto enthused, loud and exuberant for the first time in the conversation. “And then I’ll definitely beat that Sasuke-teme!”

“Is this… Sasuke-teme the boy you like?” Kakashi asked teasingly.

“NO!” Naruto protested loudly. “He’s a jerk! There’s a boy the year above us who’s… he’s really pretty,” the kid said, slightly softer, “I like him.”

“Ah,” Kakashi nodded.

“The teme is my rival,” Naruto said. “Because he’s the best in the class, but someday I’ll be better, dattebayo! I’m gonna be the Hokage! Believe it!”

“I believe it,” Kakashi said with a small grin, feeling wistful.

The kid sounded just like his mother. And if it hadn’t been for Minato-sensei then she’d have likely been the Hokage. In the end it had been down to Minato-sensei, Kushina-neesan, and Orochimaru. Minato-sensei had been the obvious pick, with his reputation and temperament, but Kakashi had no doubt Kushina-neesan had been the runner-up and well ahead of the Sannin. In fact, he’d wager that the ‘race’ between Minato-sensei and Kushina-neesan had been far closer than most people guessed in the Sandaime’s mind. Both had had strong arguments going for their candidacy.

“You believe me? Really?” Naruto’s mouth was hanging open as he gawped at Kakashi.

“I do,” Kakashi confirmed. “If you do your best as a shinobi and don’t let down your friends, I’m sure you can do it.”

Naruto’s blinding grin lit up the clearing like the sun.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Two years later Kakashi walked into a classroom a few hours late to pick up the brats the Hokage had assigned him this year. He was damn near determined to fail these kids unless they honestly earned their pass, because first the Civilian Council had tried to order him to pass them because the ‘precious last Uchiha’ was on the team and then the Hokage himself tried to guilt trip him into it by showing him the Uchiha’s and Naruto’s apartments.

Like he hadn’t seen them both before when on guard duty for both kids at different times. The Uchiha’s was a disturbingly neat place with less personality than Kakashi’s apartment. The only personal item in the entire place was the Uchiha fan over the kid’s bed. Naruto’s place used to be a pigsty, but at some point in the last few years the kid had learned to use a broom and make a bed. Kakashi put it down to Umino Iruka’s influence. Since he’d recommended Naruto ask Umino for help with reading, the two had hit it off and the man had taken the kid under his wing.

Three kids stared at him as he let the simple eraser trap hit his head. The first with blank eyes, the second with curiosity, and the third with a guarded wariness that slowly disappeared as a blinding grin spread across whiskered cheeks. Kakashi’s mind flashed to that moment of kindness years before, sitting in a clearing with a sobbing child, and he sighed internally.

 

 

“Hmm… How do I put this? My first impression of this group… This is going to be _interesting_.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> So the idea for this fic came about last fall while I was talking fandom with one of my friends. Although neither of us are huge Naruto fans, we got to talking about the show. Afterwards I watched some episodes and it struck me that, wow, if this show had been geared for anything other than 13 year old boys, Naruto might have been able to be a _real_ queer, non-binary character, with the Oiroke no Jutsu serving a purpose beyond being eye-candy for teen boys watching the show. And I've always felt the kid's 'crush' on Sakura felt forced and over-exaggerated, much like many of my middle school 'crushes' on boys were (because I didn't actually have a crush on them, I just knew I was supposed to); so I decided to play with that idea.
> 
> Those thoughts stuck with me as I delved into some fics, some of which were genderbent and others which featured a trans Naruto. 
> 
> Of course, then the idea of Kakashi in all of his social ineptness had to show up. And I just had to laugh at the mental image of a clueless but well-meaning Kakashi finding and talking to a self-questioning chibi Naruto about sexuality and gender identity before they were both on Team 7. And the question of how a single conversation with an adult about something so monumental to Naruto as a person might affect... _everything._


End file.
